User blog:BlackMage9/All About Book-to-Film Adaptations
Hello and welcome to this month's guest blog, here we will talk all about Book-to-Film Adaptations. Film Adaptations have been around for a while now but they have only recently gotten the attention they have right now. Think about it. Several are released every year alone and it looks the same for the rest of the years ahead. Nowadays it's a never-ending race by different film companies fighting each other to get the film rights to a book hoping that they can make the next Harry Potter franchise. And why not, with an ever-growing fanbase and the fact that Hollywood can't seem to make a good story on it's own anymore results in books having their film rights snatched up immediately after publication. How do you make a successful movie adaptation? Here are all of the tips I can think of right now: *First, follow the book!! Countless adaptations have bombed because they strayed from the main plot and theme of the books. If you're going to make an adaptation, change as little as possible or the fans won't be happy. *How do you remain faithful to the book? Beg the Author to help out! If the Author is happy, the fans should be too. And if the Author is dead, get a relative (C.S. Lewis' stepson Douglas Gresham, helped produce the Narnia films) or at least get an expert on the books, which leads us to the next part... *Know the books inside and out. Nothing is worse than a film being directed by someone not in the know of the series. That's why it's reassuring if you have a director who already knows the series or even grew up reading the series. *Casting! Your cast is vital for a good series and surprisingly enough, it's better to have a relatively unknown cast than to have actors who have been stereotyped already. But some big names here and there won't hurt either. * Don't forget the music. Films are for our eyes and ears. And maybe in the distant future our noses as well. Think of The Hunger Games. Its soundtrack is crazily good. Arcade Fire? The Civil Wars? Taylor Swift? Birdy? Yes please. *Other things to note: I think it should be illegal to watch the film before reading the book. Illegal I say! Even if it means reading the last chapter of the book during the trailers before the film (Trust me, I tried it). The Best Adaptations These are the films that in my opinion, did their books justice. Maybe too much in the case of the Lord of the Rings. 'Harry Potter ' Ahh, Harry Potter. If you still don't know the Harry Potter series, stop reading this blog, go to the nearest bookstore and grab a copy. But then again, I don't know many people who haven't read it so I think we're good. So, what did they get right? Let's start with the cast. Ugh!! There are few other film series that have got basically all of the cast so good that when you read the book you actually picture the actors and actresses themselves! And they got the main cast so good we can't even picture them as anything else other than their roles as Harry, Ron and Hermione. And although they tweaked some stuff, the series was still very faithful to the books and didn't hurt the overall plot too much; although that did lessen the further you go with the films. But even though the films got lots of stuff right but lets look at some stuff they got wrong. First, Ron and his family. I don't know, they didn't get enough screen time in my opinion. And they might as well have cut out Charlie and Bill from the films. We also didn't get enough back stories for Snape, the Marauders, Dumbledore and Voldemort. We didn't get to hear Luna Lovegood as a commentator during one of the quidditch matches. And don't forget about the deathly hallows part. They didn't work hard enough explaining them (Harry snapping the elder wand in half anyone?). But what annoyed me the most? Where was my quidditch world cup game?!? 'The Lord of the Rings ' The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is another amazing series. You'd have to be living under a rock to not know LotR and Harry Potter. Or be the rare person who just doesn't like them. But just how good was the original trilogy? Well it was only one of the biggest and most ambitious movie projects ever undertaken (they filmed all three back-to-back for almost a decade) and did it work? Well, they did rake in tons of cash and awards so yes, yes it did. I think one of the best things about the series is their excellent use of forced perspective for the scenes with dwarves and hobbits and just their special effects in general. And they had a good mix of prosthetic makeup and cgi which is what everyone is complaining about with the new hobbit trilogy. Pretty much everything is cgi now. I don't think watching the behind the scenes for the hobbit trilogy will be as fun as the hours of fun I had watching the original trilogy's behind the scenes. 'The Chronicles of Narnia Series' Okay, one thing you should know if you want to read this series is that there are two ways to read the books: The original publication order and the Harper Collins order. Do yourself a favor and read it in the original order with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe first and the Magician's Nephew as the penultimate book. You get to appreciate the whole series more that way. Okay, now to the films themselves. I think the first film was amazing with the subsequent films being not as amazing. But because I have always been a huge fan of C. S. Lewis's work, they'll have to make the next films really really bad for me to not watch them. The next film is already in the works (which I hope is the Silver Chair). 'The Hunger Games' The Hunger Games. Here we are. This is the book everyone seems to like comparing with every other dystopian young adult book. Even if it was written two decades before the Hunger Games. The Film was pretty good. Excellent cast except maybe for Haymitch. He was not memorable at all. The Worst Adaptations The books were pretty good but the same cannot be said of their films. The films desperately need to be remade. The only positive thing I can think of here is the fact that more attention comes to their book counterparts. 'The Percy Jackson Series' I'm sorry but if I said I enjoyed the films I'd be lying. And I'd make a list of what they got wrong but that would be too long so let's just list what they got right: Percy is in the films. There. Okay fine that wasn't fair, but if you were as frustrated as I was watching the films you'd understand. Here's only a little taste of what they got wrong: All the campers were 7 years older than their book counterparts. If they filmed Harry Potter that way they'd all be the age they were in the last film in the sorcerer's stone. Yes, now you know how weird the Percy Jackson films were. But hey, at least they got Annabeth's hair color right in the second film. 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' I'll be honest, I actually have mixed feelings about this. The books are really dark. You are constantly reminded that no happy ending will come (not really true though). The film (If I recall correctly) actually had a (kinda ) happy ending. And the decision to put the first three books's plots together and jumble them up for the film was risky but maybe they didn't have much choice. Either way, it didn't create the buzz the producers wanted and remains forgotten. 'I Am Number Four' Here in the worst films list, we see that just because you have a good book doesn't mean that it will make a good film. They got more things wrong than they did get right. Not the best cast and an unfocused plot and uneven pacing. They probably ruined all chances of a sequel. 'Eragon ' No, just no. This was really sad. The books were good but it must have been a headache translating Eragon into a film. And it didn't work. They just got too many things wrong. Yet again, bad cast, bad plot, plenty of missing stuff, plenty of unnecessary things added. But at least Saphira looked wicked. I'll admit that. Future Adaptations These films have amazing potential and they could end up either way. We can't know for sure if they will rise above expectations or join the others in the canyon of failed adaptations until they get released. 'Peter and the Starcatchers' Did you ever wonder how a flying boy met a certain pirate? Well you've come to the right place. Who would guess that Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson make great books together? I didn't. The starcatchers series is very underrated in my opinion. If a series deserves a film, it's this series. And the film is looking good so far, with Director Gary Ross is said to be directing it. That's right, it's The Hunger Games' Gary Ross. 'Shadow and Bone' I still haven't finished the book but so far I've enjoyed the book. I especially loved the Russian theme of the book and that coupled with magic is hard to match. 'The Red Pyramid' Would it be wrong to say I like this series more than the Percy Jackson series? Hopefully The Red Pyramid won't be made by the same guys who made the Percy Jackson films. 'Divergent ' Many people have reassured me that Divergent will be a good film. "But they have a great cast!" they'd say. I really hope they are right. But I've seen what they've been doing so far so I'm feeling good about this. And please stop comparing this to the hunger games. 'Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel' Having a twin is really good for fantasy stories and this is no different. Fans of Harry Potter will have no problem adjusting here. 'The Artemis Fowl Series' It feels very different from other work in the genre, yet also strangely familiar. Kind of like fantasy meets sci-fi And the fact that you have a "bad guy" for the main protagonist is very interesting. I'd love to see what butler looks like. 'The Book Thief ' I haven't read the book but I don't remember ever seeing it so it's not my fault. But with the film coming out next month, I think the book will appear here and I'll get to read it before seeing the film (don't forget the tip). 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' I am unfamiliar with this as well but since one of my fellow YA Society members thinks so highly of this I am willing to give it a try. 'Ender's Game' Can I say finally? It took a while but it's here now. 'Septimus Heap: Magyk' Another place for all the Harry Potter fans who have been feeling empty since 2007. User Roundup Here we have the expert opinions of my fellow YA Society members (I'm hoping the rest of them are willing to sacrifice a couple of minutes of their time to write me their say so this part can be longer). *BachLynn23 - "Mine would be Lord of the Rings, because I think they did one of the best jobs in staying true to the books, sure parts were cut out, but nothing cut out hurt the integrity of the overall plot." *Redwall64 - "Definitely still the Harry Potter series. I grew up with the books and the movies, and, particularly for the first few films, I just loved seeing the magic come to life on screen." *Rainbow Shifter - "Harry Potter series for me too, it was something which I grew up with and I could really relate to because I was about the same age as the characters as each film was released. " Some Final Stuff Well, I hope you've had as much fun reading this as I have had writing. And I apologize for the delay. There are so many activities going on right now for me but I'd like to blame book 2 of the Legend of Korra the most because it took up free time which could have been spent here. Did I not include a book you really like? Do you disagree with with some of the ratings? Or do you want to give your review of a book? Feel free to give me your thoughts in the comments below. Category:Blog posts